Podcast Summary:

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dr. Hannah Pool
Guest: Professor R. Jisung Park
Episode: "Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World" (Princeton UP, 2025)
Release Date: October 25, 2025

Overview

This episode features an in-depth conversation with Professor R. Jisung Park about his new book, Slow Burn: The Hidden Costs of a Warming World. Park, an environmental and labor economist, explores the less visible, “slow burn” impacts of climate warming on society. Moving beyond apocalyptic narratives, the conversation dives into nuanced costs—particularly how rising temperatures subtly but significantly affect productivity, learning, labor markets, inequality, and even human behavior.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins & Motivation for the Book

• Personal & Societal Prompt:
  • Park describes climate change as both a personal concern and a professional focus rooted in his love for the outdoors and his economic research.
  • The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with firsthand experiences of wildfires and smoke in Los Angeles, inspired Park to write the book, aiming for nuance in public dialogue.
  • "There was a sense in which the discussions around climate change seemed so apocalyptic and doomsday and dire... I couldn't help but see a disconnect." (04:42)

2. What is the “Slow Burn”? Hidden Costs of Climate Warming

• Beyond Disasters:
  • Park highlights cumulative, understated consequences of moderate temperature rises (not just extreme events):
    • Reduced labor and agricultural productivity
    • Increased workplace accidents and lower student learning
    • Higher local crime rates
    • Health effects from wildfire smoke
  • Cumulative impacts of seemingly minor temperature changes add up to significant societal consequences.
  • "The downwind consequences of wildfire smoke... may cause a couple of orders of magnitude more mortality events than the actual fire events." (09:16)

3. Cognitive Biases in Perceiving Climate Change

• Mental Shortcuts & Storytelling:
  • Many people rely on “thinking fast” (Kahneman & Tversky) which leads to oversimplified narratives—either extreme pessimism or dismissiveness.
  • The solution: Incorporate statistical, “shades of gray” thinking to inform more rational, actionable policies.
  • "By sort of the intention of the book was to help readers add another mental heuristic to their toolkit when thinking about climate change." (13:42)

4. Human Capital and Inequality: What Disasters Really Cost

• Beyond Physical Damage:
  • Park points out that traditional disaster loss estimates usually focus on physical destruction, but human capital losses (like disrupted learning or missed graduations) are similarly significant, though harder to measure.
  • "There appears to be a more hidden disruption to learning and other components of... human capital that... maybe just as significant... as these physical capital damages." (16:50)

5. How Heat Alters Work, Study, and Society

• Broad Impacts of Rising Temperatures:
  • Hot days can impact:
    • Student test performance: e.g., NYC students on 32°C days are about 10% less likely to pass.
    • Labor productivity in manufacturing and other sectors.
    • Social fabric: higher petty theft and violent crime on hot days.
    • Health: increased heat-related mortality rates with projections comparable to all current cancer deaths by 2100.
  • "Hotter temperature already has many different effects... many of which are quite subtle in nature. But again, if you add them all up, they seem to be pretty significant in magnitude." (22:32)

6. Case Study: The “Heat Game” and Research Methods

• NBA Finals as Illustration:
  • Famous basketball games illustrate how heat impairs human performance, but Park stresses the difficulty of pinpointing causality in real-world events.
  • "It's really hard to know whether temperature per se was the thing that caused the poor performance... But that there has been quite a bit of... effort to try to understand those links." (26:36)
• Scientific Approaches:
  • From controlled lab experiments to “natural” experiments using observational data, Park and colleagues seek to isolate temperature’s real impacts while accounting for human adaptation.
  • "To leverage the power of experimental techniques, but using observational data... as if nature herself has run a series of quasi experiments." (30:59)

7. Emotional and Societal Effects: Mood, Mental Health, and Conflict

• Micro and Macro Evidence:
  • Studies show that people use more aggressive language online on hotter days and that heat correlates with increased interpersonal conflict and even violent events.
  • Hotter years are linked to higher rates of mental health issues and conflict at society level.
  • "Even if it's not the end of the world tomorrow, you know, a hotter climate may just be making human flourishing just a little bit harder, you know, on all these dimensions and potentially a lot more difficult..." (36:44)

8. Personal Connection & Responsibility

• Nature as Inspiration:
  • Park describes his deep, formative bond with nature and how it influences the questions he asks as a researcher—though policy should remain evidence-based and pragmatic.
  • "Experiences in nature... inform the questions that I have cared about so far in life... But I’m very much a believer in letting the data tell us." (38:15)

9. Active Hope—A Rational Response to Climate Change

• Rejecting Hopelessness:
  • Park advocates for “active hope”—a pragmatic optimism rooted in agency, not delusion.
  • Both mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation remain viable, crucial strategies.
  • “We really need to guard against hopelessness... We always have agency... Every amount of emissions reduction does have a positive effect on stabilizing the climate in the long run. To me, that's cause for hope.” (40:07, 41:53)

10. Future Research: Adaptation Strategies

• What’s Next?
  • Park’s continuing work focuses on adaptation, aiming for efficient, equitable, and cost-effective ways society can minimize climate-related harms.
  • "I'm really interested in how those adaptation decisions can be made... consistent with both our individual and collective objectives." (43:54)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On apocalyptic climate narratives:
  "There seemed to be a growing urgency... but at the same time... the tone was perhaps a little too symbolic, not enough pragmatic." (05:29)
• On disaster costs:
  "The human capital cost... may be a little bit more hidden, maybe harder to measure... but maybe just as significant." (16:50)
• On adaptation and hope:
  "It's not too late to one, make a difference on mitigation... and also to be more proactive about... adapting to the climate change that is already in the system." (40:46)
• On agency:
  "If one lets oneself view climate change through a prism of imminent catastrophe... it can really rob you of your agency.” (41:40)
• On the personal roots of research:
  “Those experiences in nature... inform the questions that I have cared about so far in life... But as a social scientist, I’m very much wedded to this idea that... you let the data speak…” (38:03)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:12] — Motivation for writing the book
• [07:00] — The subtle “slow burn” impacts of climate warming
• [10:22] — Cognitive biases in perceiving climate change
• [15:18] — Disaster losses: human capital vs. physical damage
• [19:04] — How heat affects work, study, and crime
• [25:36] — Basketball “Heat Game” as a metaphor
• [28:47] — Research methods: lab vs. real-world data
• [33:48] — Temperature, mood, and societal conflict
• [37:33] — Park’s personal relationship with nature
• [40:07] — What is “active hope” in the climate context?
• [42:45] — Ongoing research: adaptation challenges

Tone & Style

The conversation is open, nuanced, and analytical, mixing deep research insights with personal experience. Park advocates for clear-eyed pragmatism—encouraging listeners toward agency and thoughtful action without veering into despair or blind optimism.

This summary is designed for those who may not have listened to the episode but want a thorough, engaging account of its substance and spirit.